2011 Ford Shelby GT500

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With a little more power, a less weighty engine and new performance upgrades for 2011, the folks at Ford's SVT performance unit continue to turn the once portly, push-pig Shelby GT500 into an ever-more-legitimate all-around performance car.

Like its V6 and GT brethren, the GT500, which the company is to unveil at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show, gets substantial upgrades for 2011, only a year after a major overhaul for 2010. You can think of it as a preemptive strike against the Camaro Z28 that has long been rumored to be waiting in the wings at Chevy.

Not surprisingly, the 2011 upgrades for the GT500 begin with the supercharged 5.4-liter V8, which Ford describes as an evolution of the engine from the now-departed Ford GT. Yep, that means the GT500 now has an aluminum-block engine instead of the stout iron block it has used up to now. This little switch chops off 102 pounds from the burden carried by the front axle of the notoriously nose-heavy GT500.